“It could have been the end, but it became a new beginning”: Fleetwood Man and the game-changing arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks – only in the new issue of Classic Rock
(Image credit: Future)
You can blame Classic Rock for Mike Campbell’s memoir,” our writer Jaan Uhelszki told me when I asked her to interview Tom Petty’s righthand man and legendary Heartbreaker for this issue.
“The first time I interviewed him, back in April 2014, it was for this mag,” she continued. “In the middle of his reminiscences about recording Refugee, with its punishing 71 takes, he told me about the time Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick burst into the Heartbreakers dressing room, bellowing: ‘I’m looking for a dude with a ’lude.’ I knew then that the guitarist had to write a book.” And with Jaan’s coercion, he did exactly that. She talks to him about life, love, Tom Petty and more in the new issue.
In a curious case of six degrees of separation, our cover story concerns Fleetwood Mac and the time when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band 50 years ago, changed the band’s sound and in turn the course of rock’n’roll history.
But who played guitar in Lindsey Buckingham’s absence on the Mac’s final tour? None other than Mike Campbell. It’s a small ol’ world.
Fleetwood Mac With Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on board, their 1975 self-titled White Album was the first record by what became the band’s most beloved and successful line-up.
Those Damn Crows Religion, psychedelics and a near-death experience were all inspirations for the Welsh band’s new album.
The Classic Rock Interview: Pete Townshend With The Who he wrote some of the great songs from the first wave of pop, then went on to conquer the rock world
Lollapalooza ’92 In an exclusive book extract, we look at how down-the-bill sudden stars Pearl Jam’s performances on the 1992 tour sparked crowd frenzies verging on riots.
Luke Spiller On his first solo album, The Struts frontman mixes classic flavours, velvet-lined pop and old European flair.
Mike Campbell The guitarist talks about his years as Tom Petty’s right-hand man in the Heartbreakers, early-days self-doubt, playing with Dylan and Fleetwood Mac, and two love stories.
(Image credit: Future)
Regulars
The Dirt Iron Maiden official film and book coming in autumn; Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley to reunite; Lemmy statue unveiled; early Beatles tape discovered… Welcome back Love/Hate and Erja Lyytinen. Say hello to Split Dogs and The Blue Stones. Say goodbye to Brian James, Andy Peebles, Marty Callner.
The Stories Behind The Songs: Joe Walsh A career crossroads, snow-capped mountains and a runaway lawnmower all played a part in making Rocky Mountain Way.
Q&A: Don Airey The Deep Purple keyboard player, go-to session guy and solo artist on his new album, touring, Purple, Blackmore.
Ever Meet Lemmy? Yngwie Malmsteen Yes he has. And Blackmore, Angus, Metallica, May, Mogg… The Swedish shredder recalls some of his close encounters
Reviews New albums from Ghost, Stereophonics, Hawkwind, Billy Idol, H.E.A.T, Luke Spiller, Robin Trower, Melvins, Neil Young, Samantha Fish, Machine Head and more. Reissues from Pink Floyd, Wings, Small Faces, Helloween, David Bowie, Angel, Camel, Godfathers, Dwarves, Raven and more. DVDs, films and books on Queen, Kirk Hammett, Genesis, The Jam, Slade, The Clash and more. Live reviews of The Temperance Movement, Avantasia, The Wildhearts, Guitar Wolf, Wytch Pycknyck and more.
Lives We preview tours by Daryl Hall, Rosalie Cunningham and Toby Lee. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.
The Soundtrack Of My Life: Samantha Fish The guitarist and singer picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.
* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct
* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they’re published in The UK.
Classic Rock editor Siân has worked on the magazine for longer than she cares to discuss, and prior to that was deputy editor of Total Guitar. During that time, she’s had the chance to interview artists such as Brian May, Slash, Jeff Beck, James Hetfield, Sammy Hagar, Alice Cooper, Manic Street Preachers and countless more. She has hosted The Classic Rock Magazine Show on both TotalRock and TeamRock radio, contributed to CR’s The 20 Million Club podcast and has also had bylines in Metal Hammer, Guitarist, Total Film, Cult TV and more. When not listening to, playing, thinking or writing about music, she can be found getting increasingly more depressed about the state of the Welsh national rugby team and her beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I hope one day Electric Nebraska does make the light of day.” E Street Band legend Max Weinberg on the unreleased “kick ass” album that’s become the holy grail for hardcore Bruce Springsteen fans
(Image credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Night of Too Many Stars)
In April 1982, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band assembled at Power Station studio in midtown Manhattan to recored the follow-up to the New Jersey singer/songwriter’s Billboard chart-topping fifth album, The River. Springsteen had already demoed the songs at home on a four-track Tascam 144 portastudio and was excited to flesh the sparse acoustic recordings out with his crack collaborators.
“The songs were the opposite of the rock music I’d been writing,” he recalled in his 2016 memoir Born To Run. “They were restrained, still on the surface, with a world of moral ambiguity and unease below. The tension running through the music’s core was the thin line between stability and that moment when the things that connect you to your world, your job, your family, your friends, the love and grace in your heart, fail you. I wanted to the music to feel like a waking dream and to move like poetry. I wanted the blood in these songs to feel destined and fateful.”
After two months in the studio, in June 1982 Springsteen began mixing both the acoustic and full-band sessions.
“I had these two extremely different recording experiences going,” he told MOJO magazine in 1999. “I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record. I didn’t know what to do.”
Ultimately, Springsteen decided that the full band recordings were not how he wanted this batch of songs presented to the world.
“On listening, I realized I’d succeeded in doing nothing but damaging what I’d created,” he wrote in Born To Run. “We got it to sound cleaner, more hi-fi, but not nearly as atmospheric, as authentic.”
In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg said that the electric versions of Nebraska “was all very hard-edged.”
“As great as it was,” he recalled, “it wasn’t what Bruce wanted to release.”
Now, in a new interview with The Times, Weinberg says that he hopes that the “kick-ass” electric sessions songs will emerge one day.
“There’s been this myth that they weren’t well played but we played the hell out of them,” he insists. “I know the songs were recorded, the tracks are there, so I hope one day Electric Nebraska does make the light of day.”
While the wait for that album continues, Springsteen fans will be blessed in June with the release ofTracks II: The Lost Albums, a set of seven complete, unheard, Springsteen records made between 1983 and 2018, boasting 74 never-before-heard songs.
“The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” Springsteen said last month. “I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”
“I often read about myself in the 1990s as having some ‘lost period,’” he added in a promo video for the box set. “Not really. I was working the whole time.”
“I’ve heard everything and I think the fans are going to love it,” Max Weinberg tells The Times. “There is one album [Inyo] Bruce played me where he utilised a mariachi band of musicians, Hispanic musicians. It was just incredible, incredible music.”
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“People think we sing about Vikings. We don’t and we never did. We’re concerned with nature and our relationship with nature”: If other Nordic folk bands overtake Wardruna, Einar Selvik doesn’t mind
(Image credit: Morten Munthe)
Nordic folk leaders Wardruna’s latest album Birna is an exploration of the modern world through the eyes of a mythological she-bear. Mainman Einar Selvik explains the band’s continuing themes, performing in neolithic locations, expanding the genre and what might happen if he finds himself making the same album twice.
When Einar Selvik founded Wardruna in 2003, they effectively existed in a scene of one. While by no means the first band to explore Scandinavian tradition, they helped popularise it to such an extent that subsequent Nordic folk acts such as Heilung, Nytt Land and Skáld can pop up anywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to Brixton Academy, ArcTanGent to Glastonbury.
With an increasing number of acts sharing the spotlight and pushing the boundaries of what this part-traditionalist, part-progressive music can do, there’s an understandable air of expectation around Wardruna’s latest release, Birna.
Much like 2021’s Kvitravn – translated as ‘White Raven’ – Birna’s title references a totemic figure of the animal kingdom: the she-bear. The album isn’t a retelling of an existing narrative; rather an exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature as framed through the animal. Each track builds a story of ecological destruction and the impact it has on the mythical beast: she’s forced into permanent hibernation by modern-day society, which results in the slow death of the forest.
“Bears are such a central part of wherever they are,” Selvik explains. “The time was right to give voice to that part of the wild. They used to be considered the wardens of the woodlands. Now they’re the wardens of the vanishing woodlands.”
Such environmental and spiritual themes are commonplace in Wardruna’s music. While they achieved a certain level of popularity in mainstream culture thanks to their association with TV show Vikings and videogame Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Selvik blanches at the use of the V-word in association with his project. Wardruna leave the stories about blokes with horned hats and lightning-hammering gods to Amon Amarth, thank you very much.
“People think we sing about Vikings and shit. We don’t – and we never did,” he says. “The core of our music is very much concerned with nature and our relationship with nature.” Work on Birna began before Kvitravn had been completed. A press release describes him “hunting for songs amid trees, air, rocks and sea.” It’s a bit hippie- dippie, but not a million miles from the truth.
Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
It’s quite a profound experience, seeing any kind of wild animal in the wild
On the 15-minute epic Dvaledraumar (‘dormant dreams’), Selvik underpins the usual layered complexities of his band’s music with recordings of the ‘singing ice’ of Sweden. It’s a massive track, among the most ambitious in Wardruna’s canon, capturing an impressive level of detail.
“Towards the end of that song, we’re moving into the spring,” he explains. “So I wanted a willow tree flute, which you can only make in the spring and only lasts for two days before it dries up. For me, that’s the sound of spring in Scandinavia.”
Much as he has with previous Wardruna records, Selvik found his inspiration by heading out into Norway’s resplendent woodlands, formulating ideas as he hiked. “I prefer walking on the animal trails rather than the human ones,” he admits. “I like seeing as little human traces as possible.”
Which raises the question: has he ever encountered a bear in the wild? “No – I don’t live in bear territory!” he says. “I did encounter a moose once; they’re arguably even more dangerous! And a wolf, too. It’s quite a profound experience, seeing any kind of wild animal in the wild. But the wolf just casually walked past.”
Selvik couldn’t tell you the first time he heard folk music. “It was always there in a way,” he says. “I remember that I enjoyed the melancholic parts of it, the darker side of the tradition. I grew up with all sorts of metal music from my older siblings and my father was very much into classical music. Traditional music came in the gaps between.”
There are elements of traditional music… But I do it on instruments that predate what we know as folk
Those gaps are wide-ranging for Selvik, and Wardruna in particular. With layered, complex compositions, their work is more aptly described as a symphonie au naturel. “I don’t label my music as folk,” he agrees. “I use folk – there are definitely elements of traditional music in what I do. But since I do it on instruments that predate what we know as folk, it sort of becomes a different branch.”
From their origins in the metal scene – he played in black metallers Gorgoroth from 2000-2004 – to the band being adopted into the wider embrace of progdom, Wardruna defy genre lines. “Our music has the ability to speak to people across genders or age,” Selvik says. “That’s what we see reflected in our audience as well. It’s this beautiful broken family.
“Prog’s always something that’s been fascinating to me. I like music that challenges me. But traditional music can be very progressive too, with polyrhythms and crooked beats; things that move in directions you wouldn’t expect.”
True enough, for all the new age – or should that be very, very old age? –philosophies and holistic practices, Nordic folk has nonetheless become a cultural phenomenon in recent years. Selvik even set up the platform By Norse to promote and celebrate the culture. In 2024, Heilung were invited to perform at Glastonbury, offering a new realm of exposure for the scene.
Selvik has no problem sharing the spotlight. “We paved the way in many senses,” he says proudly. “When we started out, nobody understood what the hell we were doing. We always chose to not jump on the hype train, only saying yes to opportunities on our terms. I wanted there to be more of an awareness about these instruments and themes when I started out, so it’s not a competition or an ego thing.”
Our first-ever concert was in front of a 1300-year-old Viking ship – that set the bar pretty high
Another benefit to the scene’s new popularity is that, in the early days, he composed and recorded almost entirely alone. Now he has a whole scene to work within. By and large, he still composes solo; but he also works with co-vocalist Lindy-Fay Hella on ideas, while the live band are often drafted in to record in the studio, expanding the scope of their sound.
Birna also sees other musicians like “flute guru” Hans Fredrik Jacobsen, master jaw-harpist Kenneth Lien and Jonna Jinton offer contributions, the latter recording the aforementioned singing ice while also offering “keening vocal work” on Dvaledraumar.
Wardruna – Himinndotter (Sky-Daughter) Official Music Video – YouTube
Selvik’s prospects look bright. He admits to an interest in playing Glastonbury given the chance – “It’s a special festival with a special history in a special place. I think, personally, it’d be a fantastic match” – and continues to focus on the horizon. He’d love to play some of the Neolithic sites dotted around the British Isles, for instance.
“The first-ever concert we did was in front of a 1300-year-old Viking ship in 2009 – that set the bar pretty high,” he says. “For me, Wardruna is a journey; a constant development. The most important thing is it has to come from somewhere real. It has to move me.
“And I’m not moved by the same things now as I was 10 years ago. I could never do the AC/DC thing where you make the same album over and over. I still have things to say; and when I don’t, I’ll probably do something else.”
Staff writer for Metal Hammer, Rich has never met a feature he didn’t fancy, which is just as well when it comes to covering everything rock, punk and metal for both print and online, be it legendary events like Rock In Rio or Clash Of The Titans or seeking out exciting new bands like Nine Treasures, Jinjer and Sleep Token.
Enterprising Ghost fans are selling banknote-like confetti from the band’s Skeletour dates in exchange for actual money.
The Swedish hard rock/heavy metal act kicked off the tour promoting new album Skeletá in Manchester, UK, last week. Since then, the ‘dollar bills’ they’ve dropped from the rafters at their shows have started making their way onto eBay, with one attendee selling a single note that’s not of any cash value for an eye-watering £52.72 ($70.52).
Ghost have a history of dropping fake money on audiences, having done it since the touring cycle for 2015 album Meliora. The notes have gone on to become collector’s items, with each new cycle introducing ‘currency’ featuring a new member of the band’s ‘clergy’. The character on the Skeletour notes is Frater Imperator (formerly Ghost’s Prequelle– and Impera-era singer Papa Emeritus IV), while past notes feature Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator.
Ghost are currently fronted by Papa V Perpetua, although in truth the masked singer is still band mastermind Tobias Forge, who founded the outfit in 2006 and has handled vocals on all of their albums.
Hammer attended Ghost’s show at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday (April 19) and awarded it four stars. Journalist Liz Scarlett wrote: “Though the night was missing most songs from the much-loved Impera, with the upcoming Skeletá album seemingly carrying on its 80s vein, Ghost are a band that needn’t rely on the excitement of newer releases or fan-filmed footage on social media.
“Instead, they’ve created a sacred – and superbly-fun – world of their own, one run by its own rules and enchanting lore, and after performances like tonight, it feels like a privilege just to be let inside.”
The Skeletour continues tonight (April 22) at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium. See all remaining dates below. Ghost will release Skeletá via Loma Vista on Friday, April 25.
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Ghost 2025 tour dates:
Apr 22: Antwerp Sportpaleis, Belgium Apr 23: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany Apr 24: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany Apr 26: Lyon LDLC Arena, France Apr 27: Toulouse Zenith Metropole, France Apr 29: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal Apr 30: Madrid Palacio Vistalegre, Spain May 03: Zurich AG Hallenstadion, Switzerland May 04: Milan Unipol Forum, Italy May 07: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany May 08: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands May 10: Lodz Atlas Arena, Poland May 11: Prague O2 Arena, Czech Republic May 13: Paris Accor Arena, France May 14: Oberhausen Rudolph Weber Arena, Germany May 15: Hannover ZAG Arena, Germany May 17: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark May 20: Tampere Nokia Arena, Finland May 22: Linköping Saab Arena, Sweden May 23: Sandviken Göransson Arena, Sweden May 24: Oslo Spektrum, Norway
Jul 09: Baltimore CFG Bank Arena, MD Jul 11: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA Jul 12: Tampa Amalie Arena, FL Jul 13: Miami Kaseya Center, FL Jul 15: Raleigh PNC Arena, NC Jul 17: Cleveland Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, OH Jul 18: Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA Jul 19: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA Jul 21: Boston TD Garden, MA Jul 22: New York Madison Square Garden, NY Jul 24: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI Jul 25: Louisville KFC Yum! Center, KY Jul 26: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN Jul 28: Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena, MI Jul 29: Milwaukee Fiserv Forum, WI Jul 30: St Louis Enterprise Center, MO Aug 01: Rosemont Allstate Arena, IL Aug 02: Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center, MN Aug 03: Omaha CHI Health Center, NE Aug 05: Kansas City T-Mobile Center, MO Aug 07: Denver Ball Arena, CO Aug 09: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV Aug 10: San Diego Viejas Arena, CA Aug 11: Phoenix Footprint Center, AZ Aug 14: Austin Moody Center ATX, TX Aug 15: Fort Worth Dickies Arena, TX Aug 16: Houston Toyota Center, TX
Sep 24: Mexico City Palacio De Los Deportes
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
Ghost have unveiled the new single, Peacefield, lifted from their forthcoming new album, Skeletá, which is due out on April 25, via Loma Vista.
Peacefield is the third track to arrive from the album, following Satanized and Lachryma, the latter of which was released earlier this month.
Heavily-80s coded and featuring a power stance-inducing chorus, Peacefield lands somewhere between Journey, Alice Cooper and Kiss, with a triumphant melody and a hard-hitting hair metal guitar riff.
Speaking of the song – which will serve as album opener – in a new Metal Hammer interview, frontman Tobias Forge says: “Beginning track of the album…always important to open a Ghost record with some sort of tone-setting epic, and that is Peacefield.
“Because the record is going to slalom, zig-zag into darker subjects, I wanted to set a tone of hope in the beginning, even though its addressing very contemporary, contemptuous issues, I wanted to add a hand to the listener, that it’ll be all fine, but we’re gonna go sideways now, and go on a little trip.”
The track was performed for the first time on Ghost’s recent UK Skeletour, with Metal Hammer praising their London show as the “perfect Easter resurrection” with a four star review.
“Though the night was missing most songs from the much-loved Impera, with the upcoming Skeletá album seemingly carrying on its 80s vein, Ghost are band that needn’t rely on the excitement of newer releases or fan-filmed footage on social media”, the review reads. “Instead, they’ve created a sacred – and superbly-fun – world of their own, one run by its own rules and enchanting lore, and after performances like tonight, it feels like a privilege just to be let inside. Metal’s messiah has officially returned – and his name is Tobias Forge.”
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
From Steve Harris’ galloping bass to Bruce Dickinson’s instantly recognisable voice, few bands sound as distinctive as Iron Maiden. No one is going to hear Run To The Hills or Fear Of The Dark and confuse it with anyone else, which is precisely why they’re one of the most successful bands of the last 50 years.
But Maiden have delivered some surprises along the way. Their illustrious back catalogue is studded with a handful of songs that stray from their sound for which they’re known, from strange intergalactic ballads to obscure hard rock b-sides. Here are four Iron Maiden songs that sound nothing like Iron Maiden.
Strange World (1980)
The likes of Running Free, Phantom Of The Opera and Iron Maiden itself are so deeply embedded in metal’s DNA that it’s easy to forget Maiden threw a couple of curveballs onto their self-titled debut album. Remember Tomorrow is the famous one – a song that goes from a whisper to a roar, and one that Bruce Dickinson recently said he would no longer perform out of respect to the main who originally sang it, his late predecessor Paul Di’Anno.
But much weirder is the utterly un-Maiden-like Strange World. Five-and-a-half minutes of languid, lava lamp guitars and stoned ambience, it sounds less like ’Arry and co than some early 70s prog band – or maybe Black Sabbath’s similarly cosmic Planet Caravan, with which it shares a woozy atmosphere. Whether any illicit smokables were involved isn’t clear, but this is the sound of Iron Maiden floating in space.
Maiden’s second album, Killers, was the sound of a band hitting full gallop, but there’s one song that stands out amid such nailed on early 80s metal classics as Wrathchild and the title track. Nestled towards the back of the album is Prodigal Son, a mellow semi-ballad that dials back the East End aggro for rolling acoustic guitars and a yearning Paul Di’Anno vocal in which the old rogue expresses regret for selling his soul to the devil. If Iron Maiden ever decided an unplugged show, this is would be a cert for the setlist.
We’re cheating slightly with this one, but bear with us. Reach Out was actually written by Dave Colwell, an old mate of Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith who played with the latter and various of his bandmates in The Entire Population Of Hackney, a blink-and-you-missed-it side project whose entire career amounted to a pair of knockabout gigs in December 1985.
Reach Out was one of the few original songs played at those gigs, and it was resurrected by Maiden themselves the following year as the b-side of the Wasted Years single. Even in their hands, the song is closer to radio-friendly 80s hard rock than Maiden themselves. The difference is further exacerbated by the fact that it features Smith on lead vocals, leaving Bruce Dickinson to provide backing vocals.
It may not have opened up a new musical avenue for Maiden, but it did for Smith – by the end of the 80s, he quit to launch his own group, the hard rock-leaning A.S.a.P (aka Adrian Smith And Project).
Satellite 15… The Final Frontier (2010)
Bruce Dickinson’s powerhouse voice ensures that pretty anyone who knows the name Iron Maiden can recognise one of their songs within seconds of him opening his mouth. But the opening track of Maiden’s 11th album, The Final Frontier, is a different matter.
Strictly speaking, it’s two songs in one. The second half, The Final Frontier itself, is prime modern Maiden, an exultant, to-infinity-and-beyond anthem. But the first part, Satellite 15, is the most left-field thing Maiden have ever recorded with Bruce.
The slow-building track starts with a fuzzy, machine-like bass which is soon joined by a machine-gunning percussive barrage and slashing and squealing guitars that echo around it all, before Bruce eventually comes in after two-and-half-minutes, an astronaut lost in deep space sending his final transmission home. It’s unsettling, discombobulating and brilliant. Play this to anyone who has never heard the album, and they’d be hard pushed to guess who it is.
Satellite 15…..The Final Frontier (2015 Remaster) – YouTube
Depeche Mode’s 1990 single “Enjoy the Silence” was a chart-topping hit that helped cement the group as one of the era’s defining acts — yet one band member was initially disappointed in the way the track evolved.
Recorded during sessions for Depeche Mode’s groundbreaking Violator album, the tune was penned by the band’s primary songwriter, Martin Gore. His original concept sounded very different from the final result.
“When Martin first came up with a demo for ‘Silence,’ it was kind of half a song,” frontman Dave Gahan recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “Just a piano and these very slow, ballad-y couple of verses.”
“It was more of a ballad,” concurred Gore, however bandmate Alan Wilder recognized the tune’s full potential could be unlocked with a bit more energy. “Alan had this idea to speed it up and make it a bit more disco,” Gore continued, “which I was really averse to at first, because I thought ‘the song is called ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and it’s supposed to be about serenity, and serenity doesn’t go with the disco beat’.”
Producer Flood agreed with Wilder’s suggestion and tried to get Gore on board. “Martin, you could say, was dubious about the whole idea,” Flood recalled during a Q&A decades later. “But that was good, because what that did was add a real tension. So that adds an edge that was like an undercurrent to the whole thing.”
‘It’s Not My Kind of Disco’
The band began working the song around a classic disco beat, slowly adding to the track with various layers of synthesizers, atmospheric elements and choir sounds.
“It’s not my kind of disco,” Gore reportedly muttered, even as the song was taking shape. Flood encouraged Gore to come up with a melody that could lie on top of the tune’s propulsive backbone. When the rocker created the now distinctive guitar line of “Enjoy the Silence,” everything suddenly clicked.
“I was sulking for about two days,” Gore admitted, “but after he sped it up, I got used to it and added the guitar part, which adds to the whole atmosphere. We could really hear that it had a crossover potential. I have to say that I was sulking for two days for no reason.”
The rest of the song came together quickly, as Gahan’s vocals brought to life the lyrics Gore had penned, including the famous chorus: “All I ever wanted / All I ever needed / Is here in my arms / Words are very unnecessary / They can only do harm.” In true Depeche Mode form, the song maintained the melancholic overtones of Gore’s original vision, while its updated arrangement turned it into a synth-pop smash.
“Enjoy the Silence” was released as the second single from Violator. It peaked at No. 8 in the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 on the Alternative chart on April 21, 1990. The track remains one of the band’s defining songs, and its success helped propel Violator to multi-platinum sales.
Despite his reluctance to change “Enjoy the Silence,” Gore admitted he was happy with the tune by the time it was released into the world. “I think that’s the only time in our history when we all looked at each other and said, ‘I think this might be a hit,’” he later confessed.
Alice Cooper – the original group, not the solo artist – have announced their first new studio album in over 50 years.
The Revenge of Alice Cooper, which arrives on July 25, features all four surviving members: singer Alice Cooper, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith. It also includes a special appearance by the late guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 on the song “What Happened to You,” which was built from a riff from one of his old demo tapes.
You can see the full track list below and the album art above. The album’s first single, “Black Mamba,” will debut Tuesday April 22 on Cooper’s syndicated radio show, Alice’s Attic.
In a new interview with Billboard, Cooper says working together again felt very natural. “It was very much like this was our next album after [1973’s] Muscle of Love. Isn’t that funny after 50 years? All of a sudden it just falls into place.”
Following their dissolution, Cooper the singer legally changed his name to Alice Cooper, released 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare and launched a successful solo career that continues to this day.
Another important member of the team is also returning. The Revenge… was produced by longtime Cooper collaborator Bob Ezrin, who worked with the group on 1971’s Love it to Death and Killer as well as School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies, and who has frequently collaborated with Cooper as a solo artist.
“On this album it was much more of a band, where each of us had a certain say,” Cooper says of The Revenge… sessions. “It wasn’t like my albums. I’m not gonna have a final say on it; I had one-fourth of the say on it, and that’s the way we always did it.”
The surviving members of the group have joined Cooper for multiple tracks on three of his last four solo studio albums: 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, 2017’s Paranormal and 2021’s Detroit Stories.
Cooper and his normal, and excellent, touring band recently announced a co-headlining tour with Judas Priest, which is currently set to kick off Sept. 16 in Biloxi, Mississippi and conclude Oct. 26 in Houston.
The singer tells Billboard he’s open to performing live with the original band again, under the right circumstances. “I don’t really see it being a full-out tour… but I could see it being a feature, like maybe going into certain cities – Detroit, New York, L.A., London maybe, and doing a half-hour or 40 minutes in a club or something. We always leave these things open, and if it looks feasible then we do it.”
‘The Revenge of Alice Cooper’ Track List 1. “Black Mamba” 2. “Wild Ones” 3. “Up All Night” 4. “Kill The Flies” 5. “One Night Stand” 6. “Blood On The Sun” 7. “Crap That Gets In The Way Of Your Dreams” 8. “Famous Face” 9. “Money Screams” 10. “What A Syd” 11. “Inter Galactic Vagabond Blues” 12. “What Happened To You” 13. “I Ain’t Done Wrong” 14. “See You On The Other Side”
Dave Evans holds a unique place in history as the original singer of AC/DC. And though the vocalist left the group in 1974 after just two singles together, he remains an active musician, unafraid to share his thoughts on the state of rock.
During a recent conversation with Mexico’s Rock 111, Evans claimed rock music’s popularity has declined “cause they’re not playing it on the radio.”
“The last rock band signed by a major label was about 20 years ago,” Evans opined. “I’m not talking metal; I’m talking about rock and roll, rock music. There hasn’t been a rock act signed for 25 years. So if people are not hearing it, how can they like it? You play it to them, they love it.”
Evans went on to draw a line between rock and metal acts, offering pointed criticism of the latter.
“Rock and roll is an attitude – a real attitude, not a pretend one,” he declared. “Metal is a pretend attitude – they get up there and go, ‘Rahrahrahrahrah’ – it’s bullshit. They get up there and paint their face and ‘Yeahyeah’ and they go home to their mamas: ‘Mama, what’s for dinner?.’ But rock and roll is real.”
Dave Evans Claims Modern Music Has ‘No Humanity’
Evans’ criticisms weren’t isolated to metal, as the singer also offered his pointed opinions on modern artists.
“A lot of [modern] music’s pretty clinical — it’s very clinical,” he noted. “You go back and listen now to bands like Led Zeppelin and Free — that’s when you’re feeling it, man. Really feeling it. This music today, it’s boring to me because there’s no humanity. There’s no humanity with that music… It might be clever and dexterous, and [they might] play all the chords and all that sort of stuff, but there’s no feel. That’s the humanity, the humanity of music. And those guys that do all that [busy shredding] stuff, there’s no humanity in that whatsoever. It’s just a fact. Like [Carlos] Santana — he plays one note… That’s the humanity in music. Not [playing a lot of notes at high speed]. That’s what you’re supposed to do at home so you can play melody.”
AC/DC Albums Ranked
Critics say every AC/DC album sounds the same, but that’s far from the truth.
“In walked this clown, dressed in silk pyjamas, huge shades on. I shouted, ‘Get out!’ and pushed him into the corridor. That was Steven Tyler”: Randy Bachman‘s wild tales of Pete Townshend, Neil Young, Little Richard and Frank Sinatra
(Image credit: Adela Loconte/WireImage)
Randy Bachman has a career that stretches back to the mid-60s. His first band, The Guess Who, broke out of their native Canada with hits such as 1969’s These Eyes and 1970’s American Woman. He subsequently went on to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive with his brothers Robbie and Tim., plus non-Bachman bassist Fred Turner, releasing the immortal You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet. In 2011, Bachman looked back over his long career and some of the big names he has crossed paths with.
Bo Diddley
In 1969, The Guess Who played at a three-day event called the Seattle Pop Festival. Everyone was on the bill: Led Zeppelin, Ike & Tina Turner, The Doors, The Byrds. And Bo Diddley.
Now, nobody ever filmed or recorded the festival, which might sound amazing, but it was true. There were also no posters, only a few handbills. I was lucky enough to have one. I met Bo Diddley just before he died in 2008, and I went up to him and said: ‘Mr McDaniel – his real name is Elias McDaniel, and it seemed a bit odd to be calling him Mr Diddley – do you remember playing the Seattle Pop Festival? Well, I’ve got a handbill from it that I’d like to give you’.
He was just so grateful, because as I said there’s no recorded evidence that it ever happened. “Oh, thank you,” he said. “At last I can prove to my grandchildren that I was on the same bill as all those great bands. They always thought I was lying!”
The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson in the mid-80s (Image credit: Lester Cohen/Getty Images)
Brian Wilson
I grew up in the snow of Winnipeg wondering what sort of place would inspire a band like the Beach Boys. Sun, surf… all that was alien to me, But I knew Brian was a genius. I got the chance to tour with the Beach Boys just when he’d come out of mental hospital and was gradually getting back into real life. It was an experience to be around at the time. There was so much love and affection from the rest of the band towards him.
Brian used to have the hotel room next to mine, and that was when he was with the psychiatrist Eugene Landy. Now, he’d rigged up a hidden microphone in Brian’s room, with an amp in his own, so that he could hear when Brian went out. The problem was that he was like a child and would walk in straight lines and get lost. So Landy would follow at a discreet distance behind him, and make sure he got back OK.
Just to be there as Brian slowly got back his faculties was such an honour – a triumph for the human spirit.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Little Richard
He’s one of my all-time musical idols. And I got to play with him on the BTO album Head On in 1975. I needed a piano player on a couple of tracks. I told my manager that it would be great to get someone like Little Richard, and he said: ‘Well how about the man himself?’. He’d just done a club show in Toronto, where we were recording at the time, so after a lot of negotiations, it was arranged that he’d come down to the studio.
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 156 (March 2011) (Image credit: Future)
The day arrived, and no Little Richard. Hours passed and I picked up a guitar and started strumming. Then someone told me he’d finally shown up. Now, at the time he was always introduced onstage by his band starting up Lucille. So, as a tribute I began to play that classic. In walked Little Richard. He was dressed in an orange jump suit, with an orange cape and a big ‘R’ in silver on his chest. He heard me playing Lucille and got really angry. He yelled: ‘I ain’t staying here for some white boy to make money from my song. I’m leaving!’ I had to calm him down and explain that this wasn’t the song I wanted him to play on.
Now, the fun began! The songs were in the keys of A, D and E – simple, or so I thought. But he couldn’t play those chords. He could only play in C. Therefore, I had to use some clever trickery. He was getting so stressed out about the whole thing that we began to jam around on his own songs, just to ease the tension.
I then got the idea of actually slowing down the tape for one song, Take It Like A Man, so that it worked in the key of C. And we got a take, even though Little Richard thought we were just rehearsing. When I played the song back to him, at normal speed, he was amazed. ‘Who’s playing piano?’, he asked. ‘It’s you,’ I replied. ‘Hallelujah!’ he shouted, ‘Randy Bachman’s taught me to play in the key of A!’ He was so fired up that we did the other song as well – Stay Alive. It was only after this was done that I told him he’d been playing in C all along, and that I’d used technology to change it. He was so furious that he stormed straight out!
The Who
When I was in The Guess Who, we found out about this English band called The Who and were determined to force them to change their name. So, we were in London and The Who were playing at The Marquee club. Down we went to confront them.
They were being filmed for German TV at that show, so we had to wait around for about four hours. Eventually, we get to meet them and say: “Look, we were here before you. So, change your name, it’s confusing people.” Pete Townshend looked at us and replied: “There’s The Yardbirds and The Byrds. Nobody’s confused by that. So bugger off.”
The two bands actually became great friends. And that phrase ‘bugger off’ was our in-joke. We’d check into a hotel and find out The Who were there, so we’d call up one of the guys at 3am and when they answered we would say: ‘Bugger off!’ then hang up. They’d do the same to us.
Eartha Kitt
I did a telethon in Toronto – one of those marathon TV charity experiences. Eartha Kitt was appearing, and the dressing room facilities were poor. So, she collared me and asked if I’d hold up a coat round her while she changed into her stage gear. So, there I was, holding up a coat while this beautiful woman got naked.
When she finished her stint, Eartha asked me to repeat the process. As I stood there, she wriggled out of her costume, stood there for a second and then said: “This is what you wanna see!” and promptly turned round right to face me – I got a major eyeful of her nude. And she had a great body. What could I do but rush straight to my room and relieve myself!
I also saw Tina Turner naked, but that was by accident. It was at the Seattle Pop Festival. I was watching the show on a raised platform, and Tina got changed at the side of the stage, while the Ikettes held up a blanket round her. But my view was excellent – fantastic legs!
Elvis Presley filming the ’68 Comeback Special in 1968 (Image credit: Frank Carroll/Gary Null/NBC via Getty Images)
Elvis Presley
I never got to meet him, but that’s a story in itself. It was thanks to seeing Elvis doing Tutti Frutti on TV that I gave up the classical violin and took up rock’n’roll. Years later, I wrote the song Takin’ Care Of Business for BTO. Elvis heard it on the radio and liked it so much he adopted it as his anthem.
Anyway, when BTO were falling apart, we were offered the chance to meet Elvis. Well, the rest of the band were told about the meeting, but things were so bad between us that they never told me. So off they went to meet the man. First thing he said was: “Where’s Randy Bachman, the guy who wrote that song?” They said: “Er, he didn’t wanna come along”. I was devastated when I found out what had happened. This was the man who changed my life! But when Elvis died, one of his entourage gave me a solid gold pendant that he always wore. It had the letters ‘TCB’, with a lightning flash through it.
Steven Tyler
BTO were due to play a show in Boston and the local promoter asked if we’d mind having a young band called Aerosmith open for us. We checked them out, and they had a song on the radio called Dream On at the time. It seemed quite good, very Zeppelin-esque, so we agreed.
Here we were in our dressing room before that gig, when in walked this clown. He was dressed in silk pyjamas, had huge shades on and was trying to high-five everyone. How he got past our security I do not know, but we told him to get straight out. “Hey man, I’m…” he tried to explain. “GET OUT!” I shouted, “No, you don’t understand…” he tried again. “OUT!” I repeated, pushing him into the corridor. That was the first time I met Steven Tyler Now whenever I see him, the first thing he says to me is: “OUT!”
Neil Young
I grew up in Winnipeg with Neil, and one of the biggest influences were The Shadows. In 2000, I found out that Sting was putting together a Shadows tribute album called Twang! I called him up and asked if Neil and I could be on it. He said that there was room for one more song. So I got hold of Neil, who was up for the idea. Trouble was all the classics were gone. Neil suggested we did Spring Is Nearly Here, which I couldn’t recall at all.
I went through all my Shadows records – and I have loads – but couldn’t find this anywhere. I tried to persuade Neil to do something else, but he was insistent. Eventually I confessed that I had no recollection of the song. Neil said: “We heard it on the local radio in 1964, so just think back to then”. Well, to cut a long story short we managed to record our version, but one guitar part Neil did just jarred a bit. He refused to change it, so cunningly I took home the tapes, fixed it and sent the new version to Neil, not expecting him to notice anything. I then get a call from his manager: “Neil wants the original recording used!” He had picked up on it right away.
A few years later, I met up with a couple of The Shadows and apologised to them for the way our version sounded. They just laughed and said: “Oh, it’s the way we always sounded when we played live.”
Frank Sinatra
What an intimidating man. I was in the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, and he was expected in. Now, his engineer hadn’t turned up, so the guy I was using agreed to set up Sinatra’s microphone and help out.
In walked Sinatra, did one take of the song, and then my engineer said innocently: “Can we do another take, please?” Sinatra looked at him, and said: “What’s your name?” He replied, “Mark Smith”. “OK,” responded Sinatra. “That’s ONE. You get one mistake with me and then you’re out.” It seemed that the man only ever did one take of any song. You never got a second one.
Originally published in Classic Rock issue 156. March 2011
Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term “thrash metal” while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.
